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Gov’t Moving To Improve Management And Governance Of NHT

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, addresses the ground breaking ceremony for construction of 106 serviced lots in Phase 2 of the Masemure Housing Development in Little London, Western Westmoreland on Friday (March 10).

(Media Credit: Marlon Tingling)

KINGSTON (JIS) -- Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is taking steps to improve the management and governance structure of the National Housing Trust (NHT). This, he said, is in order for the entity to “run more like a financial institution should be run, and to make decisions based on financial soundness, but also bearing in mind the provision of affordable housing solutions for Jamaica. We are going to make sure that we place the NHT on a solid footing, so that it can have a very long institutional life”. The Prime Minister was addressing the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of 106 serviced lots in Phase 2 of the Masemure Housing Development in Little London, Western Westmoreland on Friday (March 10). He said the time had come for the NHT to be operating as a financial institution.

“The NHT is not a housing agency. The NHT is a financial institution, and we have to treat the NHT like a financial institution,” he said.

The Masemure project, being undertaken at a cost of $182.3 million, forms part of a 2014 land-swap agreement between the NHT and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, where lands owned by the Trust and deemed suitable for agriculture are exchanged for lots that are more appropriate for housing.

The agreement provides that of the 106 lots, 40 are to be sold to the SCJ Holdings Limited to facilitate the relocation of sugar workers.

Also on Friday, the Prime Minister broke ground for 32 housing solutions in Darliston at a cost of $95.4 million.

The NHT project is geared towards middle- and low-income earners and will include a section reserved for commercial, recreational and community activities.

The Prime Minister said the NHT is focused on a mission to provide 14,000 housing solutions in the next two years, with the housing stock in Westmoreland to receive a significant boost over the next four years.